What Goes Up Must Come Down

Has the present day only remaining only super power, America lost its Kryptonite ?

            From Newton’s laws and our application of physical forces of gravity we have learnt from the basic principles of physics that what goes up must come down!  This notion can be applied to the greatest nations of the world.

            They say that Rome was not built in a day, and indeed its greatness was awe inspiring. How proud Caesar must have been to survey the great Roman city with a string of conquests in his pocket. And yet Rome burnt and was mostly destroyed in just a day. In the same way it was proudly claimed that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Well, the sun did set and in the cold light of day, Great Britain was not so great after all. After conquering and ruling a large part of this planet, the empire is a mere poor relation that acts on the whims of its neighbor, USA across the pond. How the mighty fall, and the higher heights you reach the greater the fall and impact on landing. It may sound a tad clichéd but every dog has its day, and this brings to mind the present and only “super power” of America.

            History has shown that when a nation reaches dizzying heights, they are unable to see the wood for the trees. Success breeds contempt and arrogance as the nation in question believes that she is now invincible. Victory after victory rests on her shoulders and the weight of power becomes a load hard to bear. In the case of America, this was shown in the steely determination and rather crude methodology of Bush in invading Afghanistan and Iraq with the warning to his allies, “ you are with us or against us ”.The end result of this dictatorship government built on arrogance was that  billions were spent on the “war on terror” and America went to bed each night fearful of the “axis of evil”. In the meantime the government failed to read the mood of its people or the other nations. While someone “slept at the switch”, a major economic catastrophe in the form of the credit crisis and housing market collapse was on the horizon, and the world united in its mistrust of this fallen power. I can almost hear Bush muttering to his advisors in the oval office, on being told the people have no bread, “let them eat cake”. They say America sneezes and the rest of the world catches a cold. And true to form the economic downturn spiraled in a domino effect to the rest of the world. In the midst of this madness, came a Messiah heralding hope and change and we all fell to the charm that is Obama. But two years down the line our hopes faded as Obama was unable to sprinkle magic dust on the nation’s woes, and we learnt that inspiring speeches do not always lead to fruitful changes. With the housing crisis intact and unemployment reaching 10% it seems right that Forbes voted the most powerful man in the world as China’s leader. The king is dead long live the king! Yes, China (followed on the heels by India) are fast emerging as the next successor to hold the mantle of super power. But will America give up this mantle without a fight? And yet the nation that once boasted of having the highest, biggest and tallest something in the world has fallen to the wayside. What happened to the American dream?

            It remains to be seen if history will repeat itself or if America can rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Only time can tell.